International Graduate Centre of Education

The Africa We Want: Education and Health Nexus

The desire for a free, humane, just and equitable access to quality education and health care system, economic prosperity and infrastructure development in Africa continent has led to several policy pronouncements in the past.Toward realisation of those policies, some educational initiatives that range from democratic socialism, African socialism, pragmatic socialism, ideological orientation and democratic tenets were crafted to drive the agenda for a viable and self-reliant continent. Unfortunately, those ideological beliefs have largely yielded little or no positive outcome for the required transformation of the continent.

In recent time, the zeal with which the continent embracing education as a potent instrument for socio-economic and political transformation has accounted for the shift in policy direction. It is in line with this policy initiative (AU Agenda 2063), that a team of African scholars at the Charles Darwin University are pleased, as part of the internationalisation initiative, to create a platform for other African intellectuals at home and diaspora to engage in a robust policy discussion in the area of education and health for the development of the Africa continent agenda 2063.Our purpose is to present considerations for change in Education and Policies in the Africa continent Agenda 2063.

We wish to extend an invitation to you to contribute a paper to a colloquium titled: The Africa We Want: Education and Health Nexus. This colloquium, to be hosted by Charles Darwin University in July 2019, is a multi-disciplinary platform for intellectual engagement in a broad spectrum of policy issues about Africa in different research areas such as:

•Education and Health policy formulation and implementation;

•Alignment and intricacies between the tiers of government responsible forimplementation of Education and Health policies;

•Responding to Global Agendas such as Education for All, 21st Century Skills, and Open Educational Resources, Distance Education;

From available literature, the present quality of Education and Health Nexus in Africa continent, given its dynamics, seems contrary to policy pronouncement and provision of an integrated, united, peaceful, sovereign, independent, confident and self-reliant continent agenda in 2063. We believe that we live in disruptive times that demand a new approach to policy discussion agenda for the African continent if the desire is to build a strong and self-reliance reliant continent. It is our belief that the colloquium would afford us the opportunity to generate pragmatic ideas to reconstruct the Education and Health sector of the continent.

We are in discussion with some reputable international publishers in Australasia and US to have good and well written papers published in a book. We expect all presenters to have their paper ready for consideration as a book chapter while finalising a publishing agreement with the publisher.

Please take note of the following submission processes:

• A relevant topic of interest in any of the thematic areas indicated above should be chosen.

• It is also possible to draw on your research thesis or unpublished works adapting them to address any of the sub themes.

• For authors who are adapting their published work, copyright clearance for your work is entirely your responsibility and evidence of such clearance may be required by the publisher when the final draft of the book is submitted.

• The aim of this book is to have a broad representation of authors from all the sub-regionsin Africa, using a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches.

• Authors will be informed of the editorial decision by 29 March 2019, and a final submission by 30 August 2019 for onward transmission to the publisher. Registration details can be found on the colloquium website: www.igce.cdu.edu.au/publications/the-africa-we-want

It is hoped that you will be able to respond positively to this invitation. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Conveners

Coral Campbell

Coral Campbell is a lecturer at Charles Darwin University where she specialises in the design and delivery of discipline-specific academic literacies in the Academic Language and Learning Success Program (ALLSP). Over her many years of teaching in Secondary and Higher Education she has passionately developed active learning practices that cognitively engage students. Action Research has informed many of her pedagogical approaches. Her Masters in Linguistics was grounded in discourse analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory that remain research interests.

She taught for many years in secondary and tertiary education in South Africa, in communities significantly disadvantaged by Apartheid. That experience provided impetus to her research in developing teaching practices that best support diverse student needs within universities today. Her most recent Conference Presentation was at the 2017 HEC KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa - Higher Education Today: Crises, Contestations, Contemplations and Futures. Her paper was ‘Creating and delivering tailor-made intensive academic skills programs to accommodate diverse student needs and guarantee equity and social justice at the University and our region’.

Kalpana Chana

I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the apartheid era. Having lived and schooled in the Indian group area of Lenasia (suburbs were grouped according to the four races that people of South Africa were classed into during the apartheid era), on the outskirts of Soweto, I was very much part of the struggle for a just education system for all at the time. This was a long battle that was not won during my schooling years; however, I survived the ‘oppressed pedagogy’ of education that was offered, and progressed to attend the University of Witwatersrand in the 1980’s. After obtaining my undergraduate qualification there (BSc zoology, psychology), I migrated with my family to New Zealand in 1995, where I lived for twenty years, gaining further qualifications in primary teaching and later, a masters in adult literacy and numeracy education. I arrived in Darwin during 2016, to work at CDU, as a lecturer in the Tertiary Enabling Programme. As an educator of adults, my interest and passion has always been in the area of finding strategies for supporting low-achieving students.

Bopelo Boitshwarelo

Dr Bopelo Boitshwarelo works as a Senior Higher Education and Training Developer, which is an academic development role, within the portfolio of the Pro Vice Chancellor (Education Strategy) at Charles Darwin University. His research currently focusses on curriculum and learning design particularly for online learning environments, and he also has a keen interest in issues around professional development for academics. He has previously worked at the University of Botswana for over 12 years as an extension scholar in the Department of Distance Education, focussing on developing open and distance learning (ODL) programs. He has conducted research on the potential of learning technologies to improve access to, and quality of, ODL in Africa including exploring existing transnational partnerships available in the continent.

Edwards Alademerin

Edwards Alademerin

Prof. Edwards Alademerin after his secondary education attended Ogun state College of Education, Ijebu Ode, in Nigeria and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka up to 2001 for his Teacher's certificates - Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Vocational Agricultural Education. He also attended a Postgraduate short course on Poverty and Inequality at Maastricht University, The Netherlands in 2009. Over the last 23 years of his career, he has been involved in the retraining exercises during workshops for Senior Extension officers, Community Development officers and Agriculture Teachers at the Junior and Senior Secondary levels in Lagos and Ogun states in Nigeria. From 2010 to 2011, he was at Aberystwyth University in Aberystwyth, Wales-UK as a Visiting Academic Scholar where he researched into Farm Business Survey in Wales and England. He was part of the team that taught Eco-tourism, Environmental economics and students industrial experience at the University. He has held several positions of responsibility within his University in the last few years as Head of Department of Agricultural Education, Deputy Director of Centre for Entrepreneurship and Vocational Studies and recently as the Director, Centre for Human Rights and Gender Education until May, 2015. He was the erstwhile Chairman; Task force on Part time Examinations up till June, 2018. As the Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Gender Education (CHURGE) of our University, we focus on providing trainees and our clients with a practical understanding of all issues relating to Human Rights, Environment, Health and safety, Poverty issues, Democracy and good governance, Women Empowerment and skills acquisition etc. The training and public enlightenment programmes we organise within the University and neighboring farming communities are well woven around human rights, gender equity and sustainable livelihoods. He is a Statutory Member of the Senate, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun. Prof. Alademerin is a Member of Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN, UK) and Member of Ethiopian Doctoral and Masters Academy. In addition, he is a Visiting Research Professor to Jimma University, Jimma and Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. Prof Alademerin is widely travelled and has presented several academic papers at both local and international conferences in Europe and several parts of Africa. He is a member of several professional bodies in his discipline. His research interests are in pedagogical issues, gender and sustainable livelihoods in Agriculture.

Amanda Janssen

Amanda comes from South Africa and has studied in both South Africa and Australia. This, along with her work experience, has made her acutely aware of the chasm in education across the globe. Amanda is passionate about equity in education and believes that through developing academic literacy, people can reach their academic potential.

Currently, Amanda Janssen is Theme Leader of the Academic Language and Learning Success Program (ALLSP) in the College of Education at Charles Darwin University. She leads a team who work across the university with students and staff to improve and develop academic literacy. Amanda is also a key member of the working group to develop university wide resources to promote academic integrity. Her research interests are in: multimodal social semiotics and, the effective integration of academic literacy in university curriculum design. She is currently part of the executive team for the Association for Academic Language and Learning (AALL).

Stephen Dele Bolaji

Stephen Bolaji comes from the Indigenous Yoruba speaking part of old Ancient Oyo Empire Nigeria known as Oyo Town (Pacesetter State) in Sub-Sahara West Africa. Prior to joining CDU in 2014, Stephen spent a decade at the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija-Epe, Lagos-Nigeria teaching pre-service teachers how to teach. In 2013, he took a position as a lecturer at the University of Lagos, Akoka-Nigeria (The University of First Choice) teaching educational foundation units to preservice teachers and postgraduate students in the department of Educational Foundations and Counselling Psychology.

Stephen’s journey to Australia began when he won highly competitive International Endeavor Scholarship to complete a second doctoral research study titled: Intent to Action: Overcoming Barriers to Universal Basic Education Policy Implementation in Nigeria at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.

Upon completion of his study, he was offered a position as a lecturer graduate entry program in the College of Education at Charles Darwin University, Casuarina Campus, Northern Territory where is currently, teaching undergraduate and graduate programs.

Stephen’s research interest is in Policy, Philosophy, Comparative, Sociology, History, Community Studies and Global Education. He is a qualitative researcher and well- grounded in using a range of qualitative instruments in collecting data for research projects. He derives satisfaction in guiding students through their teaching and research undertakings. Stephen enjoys golfing, teaching and conducting research.

Victor Oguoma

Victor Oguoma is a Senior Research Officer and Biostatistician at the Child Health Division of the Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University. He has public health epidemiology research experience in both infectious and chronic diseases affecting low-middle-income countries (LMICs) and linguistically and culturally diverse populations (CALDs). Victor has published widely in reputable national and international scientific journals and is currently an investigator in two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in diabetes funded by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), and are ongoing in Nigeria, West Africa. He is also heavily involved in the design, analysis and scientific dissemination of novel epidemiological and RCT studies in the Indigenous populations of Australia. His ultimate interest centres on novel public health preventive and control measures; statistical models in epidemiology; and quality design and analysis of clinical trials/intervention studies.

Sulay Jalloh

Sulay Jalloh is a multidisciplinary researcher currently lecturing in the Tertiary Enabling Program and in the Common Units at Charles Darwin University (CDU). Before joining CDU, he was a lecturer in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Sulay has a strong research focus and interest in enabling pathways, adult learning pedagogy, academic and cultural literacy and media representation of minority groups. He is currently developing a community driven intervention program to enable African families and youth, particularly from low SES backgrounds, the opportunity to explore options for nurturing higher education aspirations.

Sulay has good analytical and research skills gained from his doctoral research project. These include expertise in news dissemination, analysis of issues and interviewing. He also obtained and analysed data from a variety of sources including the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He compared the Australian data with similar data from the United State, Canada and New Zealand and presented the findings in his thesis.